Worrying is a key concept in describing the complex relationship between anxiety and cognitive control. On the one hand, cognitive control processes might underlie the specific tendency to engage in worrying (i.e., trait worry), conceptualized as a future-oriented mental problem-solving activity. On the other hand, the general tendency to experience the signs and symptoms of anxiety (i.e., trait anxiety) is suggested to impair cognitive control because worrisome thoughts interfere with task-relevant processing. Based on these opposing tendencies, we predicted that the effect of the two related constructs, trait anxiety and trait worry, might cancel out one another. In statistics, such instances have been termed suppressor situations. In four experiments, we found evidence for such a suppressor situation: When their shared variance was controlled, trait worry was positively whereas trait anxiety was negatively related to performance in a memory task requiring strategic, effortful retrieval. We also showed that these opposing effects are related to temporal context reinstatement. Our results suggest that trait worry and trait anxiety possess unique sources of variance, which differently relate to performance in memory tasks requiring cognitive control.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: Author.
2.
BaddeleyA. D. (1996). Exploring the central executive. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 49, 5–28. doi:10.1080/713755608
3.
BadosA., Gómez-BenitoJ., & BalaguerG. (2010). The state-trait anxiety inventory, trait version: Does it really measure anxiety?Journal of Personality Assessment, 92(6), 560–567.
4.
BannermanD. M., SprengelD. M., SandersonD. J., McHughS. B., RawlinsJ. N. P., MonyerH., & SeeburgP. H. (2014). Hippocampal synaptic plasticity, spatial memory and anxiety. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15, 181–192. doi:10.1038/nrn3677
5.
BarlowD. H. (2002). Anxiety and its disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford.
6.
BielingP. J., AntonyM. M., & SwinsonR. P. (1998). The state-trait anxiety inventory, trait version: Structure and content re-examined. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 777–788.
7.
BorkovecT. D., RobinsonE., PruzinskyT., & DePreeJ. A. (1983). Preliminary exploration of worry: Some characteristics and processes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21(1), 9–16. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(83)90121-3
8.
BrandM., & MarkowitschH. J. (2008). The role of prefrontal cortex in episodic memory. In DereE., EastonA., NadelL., & HustonJ. P. (Eds.), The handbook of episodic memory (pp. 317–342). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
9.
BucknerR. L., & CarrollD. C. (2007). Self-projection and the brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(2), 49–57. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.004
10.
CohenJ., CohenP., WestS. G., & AikenL. S. (2003). Applied multiple correlation/regression analysis for the social sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
11.
CongerA. J. (1974). A revised definition of suppressor variables: A guide to their identification and interpretation. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 34, 35–46. doi:10.1177/001316447403400105
12.
ConwayM. A. (2009). Episodic memories. Neuropsychologia, 47, 2305–2313. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.02.003
13.
ConwayM. A., & Pleydell-PearceC. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107(2), 261–288. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.107.2.261
14.
CoplanJ. D., HodulikS., MathewS. J., MaoX., HofP. R., GormanJ. M., & ShunguD. C. (2011). The relationship between intelligence and anxiety: An association with subcortical white matter metabolism. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, 3, 8. doi:10.3389/fnevo.2011.00008
15.
DashS. R., MeetenF., & DaveyG. C. L. (2013). Systematic information processing style and perseverative worry. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(8), 1041–1056. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2013.08.007
16.
DaveyG. C., HamptonJ., FarrellJ. A., & DavidsonS. (1992). Some characteristics of worrying: Evidence for worrying and anxiety as separate constructs. Personality and Individual Differences, 13(2), 133–147. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(92)90036-O
17.
DavidsonT. L., & JarrardL. E. (2004). The hippocampus and inhibitory learning: A “gray” area?Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 28(3), 261–271. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.02.001
18.
EngelsA. S., HellerW., MohantyA., HerringtonJ. D., BanichM. T., WebbA. G., & MillerG. A. (2007). Specificity of regional brain activity in anxiety types during emotion processing. Psychophysiology, 44, 352–363. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2007.00518.x
19.
EngleR. W. (2002). Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 19–23. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00160
20.
EysenckM. W., & CalvoM. G. (1992). Anxiety and performance: The processing efficiency theory. Cognition & Emotion, 6, 409–434. doi:10.1080/02699939208409696
21.
EysenckM. W., DerakshanN., SantosR., & CalvoM. G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attentional control theory. Emotion, 7(2), 336–353. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.336
22.
FrostR. O., MartenP., LahartC., & RosenblateR. (1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14(5), 449–468. doi:10.1007/BF01172967
23.
GrayJ. A., & McNaughtonN. (2000). The neuropsychology of anxiety (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
24.
HayesS., HirschC., & MathewsA. (2008). Restriction of working memory capacity during worry. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 712–717. doi:10.1037/a0012908
25.
HealeyM. K., CrutchleyP., & KahanaM. J. (2014). Individual differences in memory search and their relation to intelligence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(4), 1553–1569. doi:10.1037/a0036306
26.
HedgesL. V., & VeveaJ. L. (1998). Fixed- and random-effects models in meta-analysis. Psychological Methods, 3(4), 486–504.
27.
HellerW., NitschkeJ. B., EtienneM. A., & MillerG. A. (1997). Patterns of regional brain activity differentiate types of anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 376–385. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.106.3.376
HertelP. T. (2000). The cognitive-initiative account of depression-related impairments in memory. In MedinD. L. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 39, pp. 47–71). New York, NY: Academic Press.
30.
Hoehn-SaricR., LeeJ. S., McLeodD. R., & WongD. F. (2005). Effect of worry on regional cerebral blood flow in nonanxious subjects. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 140, 259–269. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2005.05.013
31.
HolawayR. M., RodebaughT. L., & HeimbergR. G. (2006). The epidemiology of worry and generalized anxiety disorder. In DaveyG. C. L. & WellsA. (Eds.), Worry and its disorders. Research, theory and treatment (pp. 101–121). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
32.
HorstP. (1941). The role of the predictor variables which are independent of the criterion. Social Science Research Council, 48, 431–436.
33.
HowardM. W., & EichenbaumH. (2013). The hippocampus, time, and memory across scales. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, 1211–1230. doi:10.1037/a0033621
34.
JacobyL. L. (1991). A process dissociation framework: Separating automatic from intentional uses of memory.Journal of Memory and Language, 30(5), 513–541.
35.
KahanaM. J. (1996). Associative retrieval processes in free recall. Memory & Cognition, 24, 103–109. doi:10.3758/BF03197276
LeynesA. P. (2002). The effect of specific test queries on source-monitoring event-related potentials. Brain and Cognition, 50(2), 218–233. doi:10.1016/S0278-2626(02)00505-5
38.
LiddellH. S. (1949). The role of vigilance in the development of animal neurosis. In HochP. & ZubinI. (Eds.), Anxiety (pp. 183–197). New York, NY: Grune & Stratton.
39.
LongN. M., ÖztekinI., & BadreD. (2010). Separable prefrontal cortex contributions to free recall. The Journal of Neuroscience, 30(33), 10967–10976. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2611-10.2010
40.
LynamD. R., HoyleR. H., & NewmanJ. P. (2006). The perils of partialling: Cautionary tales from aggression and psychopathy. Assessment, 13(3), 328–341. doi:10.1177/1073191106290562
41.
MacKinnonD. P., KrullJ. L., & LockwoodC. M. (2000). Equivalence of the mediation, confounding, and suppression effect. Prevention Science, 1(4), 173–181. doi:10.1023/A:1026595011371
42.
MathewS. J., MaoX., CoplanJ. D., SmithE. L., SackeimH. A., GormanJ. M., & ShunguD. C. (2004). Dorsolateral prefrontal cortical pathology in generalized anxiety disorder: A proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 1119–1121. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.161.6.1119
43.
MeyerT. J., MillerM. L., MetzgerR. L., & BorkovecT. D. (1990). Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28(6), 487–495. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6
44.
MohlmanJ., PriceR. B., EldrethD. A., ChazinD., GloverD. M., & KatesW. R. (2009). The relation of worry to prefrontal cortex volume in older adults with and without generalized anxiety disorder. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 173(2), 121–127. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2008.09.010
45.
MoscovitchM. (1994). Memory and working-with-memory: A component process model based on modules and central systems. In SchacterD. L. & TulvingE. (Eds.), Memory systems (pp. 269–310). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
46.
MuellerE. M., NguyenJ., RayW. J., & BorkovecT. D. (2010). Future-oriented decision making in generalized anxiety disorder is evident across different versions of the Iowa gambling task. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 41, 165–171. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2009.12.002
47.
NoldeS. F., JohnsonM. K., & RayeC. L. (1998). The role of prefrontal cortex during tests of episodic memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(10), 399–406. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(98)01233-9
48.
PajkossyP., DezsőL., & PaprikaZ. Z. (2009). The opposite effect of trait and state anxiety on Iowa gambling task. Learning & Perception, 1(2), 279–295. doi:0.1556/LP.1.2009.2.110
49.
PajkossyP., SimorP., SzendiI., & RacsmányM. (2015). Hungarian validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). Method effects and comparison of paper-pencil versus online administration. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 31, 159–165. doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000221
50.
PaulhusD. L., RobinsR. W., TrzesniewskiK. H., & TracyJ. L. (2004). Two replicable suppressor situations in personality research. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39(2), 303–328. doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr3902_7
51.
PenneyA. M., MiedemaV. C. & MazmanianD. (2015). Intelligence and emotional disorders: Is the worrying and ruminating mind a more intelligent mind?Personality and Individual Differences, 74, 90–93. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.10.005
52.
PerkinsA. M., & CorrP. J. (2005). Can worriers be winners? The association between worrying and job performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(1), 25–31. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2004.03.008
53.
PetridesM. (1996). Specialized systems for the processing of mnemonic information within the primate frontal cortex [and discussion]. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 351, 1455–1462. doi:10.1098/rstb.1996.0130
54.
PollackM. H., Roy-ByrneP. P., Van AmeringenM., SnyderH., BrownC., OndrasikJ., & RickelsK. (2005). The selective GABA reuptake inhibitor tiagabine for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66(Suppl. 8), 1401–1408.
55.
PreacherK. J., & HayesA. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891.
PriceR. B., & MohlmanJ. (2007). Inhibitory control and symptom severity in late life generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(11), 2628–2639. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2007.06.007
58.
PurdonC., & HarringtonJ. (2006). Worry in psychopathology. In DaveyG. C. L. & WellsA. (Eds.), Worry and psychological disorders: Theory, assessment and treatment (pp. 41–51). West Sussex: Wiley and Sons.
59.
RapeeR. M. (1993). The utilisation of working memory by worry. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 617–620. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(93)90114-A
60.
SchacterD. L., AddisD. R., & BucknerR. L. (2007). Remembering the past to imagine the future: The prospective brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8, 657–661. doi:10.1038/nrn2213
61.
SederbergP. B., HowardM. W., & KahanaM. J. (2008). A context-based theory of recency and contiguity in free recall. Psychological Review, 115, 893–912. doi:10.1037/a0013396
62.
SederbergP. B., MillerJ. F., HowardM. W., & KahanaM. J. (2010). The temporal contiguity effect predicts episodic memory performance. Memory & Cognition, 38, 689–699. doi:10.3758/MC.38.6.689
63.
SibravaN. J., & BorkovecT. D. (2006). The cognitive avoidance theory of worry. In DaveyG. C. L. & WellsA. (Eds.), Worry and its psychological disorders: Theory, assessment and treatment (pp. 239–258). West Sussex: Wiley and Sons.
64.
SiddiqueH. I., LaSalle-RicciV. H., GlassC. R., ArnkoffD. B., & DíazR. J. (2006). Worry, optimism, and expectations as predictors of anxiety and performance in the first year of law school. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 30(5), 667–676. doi:10.1007/s10608-006-9080-3
65.
SiposK., & SiposM. (1983). The development and validation of the Hungarian form of the STAI. In SpielbergerC. D. & Diaz-GuerroR. (Eds.), Cross-cultural anxiety (Vol. 2., pp. 27–39). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
66.
SmithE. E., & JonidesJ. (1999). Storage and executive processes in the frontal lobes. Science, 283, 1657–1661. doi:10.1126/science.283.5408.1657
67.
SpielbergerC. D. (1975). Anxiety: State-trait-process. In SpielbergerC. D. & SarasonI. G. (Eds.), Stress and anxiety (Vol. 1, pp. 115–143). Washington, DC: WHemisphere.
68.
SpielbergerC. D., GorsuchR. L., & LusheneR. E. (1970). Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists’ Press.
69.
StartupH. M., & EricksonT. M. (2006). The Penn State Worry Questionnaire. In DaveyG. C. L. & WellsA. (Eds.), Worry and its disorders. Research, theory and treatment (pp. 101–121). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
70.
StöberJ., & JoormannJ. (2001). Worry, procrastination, and perfectionism: Differentiating amount of worry, pathological worry, anxiety, and depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25(1), 49–60. doi:10.1023/A:1026474715384
71.
StöberJ., & OttoK. (2006). Positive conceptions of perfectionism: Approaches, evidence, challenges. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 295–319. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr1004_2
72.
TallisF., EysenckM. W., & MathewsA. (1992). A questionnaire for the measurement of nonpathological worry. Personality and Individual Differences, 13(2), 161–168. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(92)90038-Q
73.
TulvingE. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
74.
TzelgovJ., & HenikA. (1991). Suppression situations in psychological research: Definitions, implications, and applications. Psychological Bulletin, 109(3), 524–536. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.109.3.524
75.
VerkuilB., BrosschotJ. F., BorkovecT., & ThayerJ. F. (2009). Acute autonomic effects of experimental worry and cognitive problem solving: Why worry about worry?International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 9(3), 439–453.
76.
ZeidnerM. (1998). Test anxiety: The state of the art. New York, NY: Plenum.
